Let’s Not Get Carried Away With The Obama Bandwagon

Now, this is not a racist slur in any sort of way. I think it is fantastic for America to elect it's first black prime minister, a new dawn for a new age one may say. I think it just reflects the time and effort the Civil Rights movement has put in over the last 40 years to finally install a black president. For those who think he got in on just the 'racist ticket' I strongly disagree with you, Obama is America's Blair, whether or not he's black or white is irrelelevant, he was a fresh breath of air! Let us hope he is more successful then our own fresh breath of air!

The point of this comment is more of a warning then anything else. After reading the comments section of The Times and such papers, there has been a lot of comments suggesting could minority ethnics become presidents and Prime Minister's across the world? There have been calls for a white man to stand for President of Israel and there's been the obvious cause of a British version of Obama.

There are many problems with this. Firstly, this is not the time to start electing presidents or Prime Minsiters because of the colour of their skin. More than ever, the man/woman for the job should be selected for his/her policies. We cannot make the Americans select their leader due to his or hers policies, but we can make sure we don't 'Americanize' our own electoral contests. One evident thing that stood out when Thatcher stood for Prime Minister, was the claim that she was the first female Prime Minister was largely played down, she reverted into making it work in her favour, in terms of mixing it in with her policies, which made her one of the most successful Prime Ministers ever. However, what we have to worry about in future elections in Great Britain is that we don't suddenly start electing our leader due to his/her personality. As I said earlier on, this is not the time to start playing with the fabrics of government in order to look more diverse and different. Massive challenges await ahead for this country, times are going to become very difficult. I am not saying that we shouldn't elect an ethnic Prime Minister due to doubts over whether they would be able to run the country, I have no doubt that regardless of the candidates ethnicity the right man would be selected for the job. We just have to make sure that our prime ministerial contests don't degrade into a discussion around race. To say the American election was based around policies would be an untrue statement in my opinion, I do believe there was a lot of racism directed at both candidates. Indeed that is going to be a problem for Obama in the up coming election and times will be difficult for him, in a still quite a racist society.

The second problem with this is that the UK is not America and it isn't 1990s South Africa. We do not have a problem with racism in this country on the scale of these two countries. One of the greatest things about this country is our multi-ethnicity, I would like to think that if a minority ethnic person stood for election, his/her ethnicity would only be slightly noted. I am not saying there aren't incidents of racism in this country, and I am not saying the US is a racist country, but we did not have such a rampant racist group such as the KKK dotting through our history. Tolerance has always been Britain's high point, yes there was racism when immigration first started on a mass scale, but this was phased out extremely quickly in British society. Also, something one can note is that America has a lot higher proportion of minorities than the UK. We do not need a British Obama to herald the cause of the ethnics in this country, this is already safe gaurded by a tolerant society why race is not an issue. Also we do not have such heightened racial hatred in this country, on the whole we all live in harmony, not saying there is a lot of racial hatred in the States, but it's certainly at a higher level than it is in the UK

I hope when you read above that you don't think this is a racist slur at all, when I truely believe in something I will say it how I think it. I am not saying at all we shouldn't have a ethnic minority candidate in the Prime Ministerial elections, I am simply saying that if we do, when the time is right, that person's campaign should not be directed at the ethnics living in this country. Similary the rival candidate, if he/she is white, shouldn't direct the campaign at the ethnic majority in this country. Politics is about policy and charisma in the 21st century, not race.

Disclaimer: I am not saying at all that Obama's and McCain's presidential campaigns and subsequent election/defeat was due to racism, I truely believed both candidates tried to avoid the point. However, unfortunately things got nasty along the way and a lot of America's bigots (white and blacks) decided to use the election to demonstrate their dislike of each other.

Peter Self TPN's EDITOR and International Editor